Lon Poff Movies

Director Victor Fleming's final film features Ingrid Bergman as a vivid and luminous Joan of Arc, the 15th-century French peasant girl who led the French in battle against the invading English, becoming a national hero. When she was captured, tortured, and ultimately executed by the English, she was made a Catholic saint. Bergman's Joan is a strong and spiritual figure who proves her devotion to the Dauphin (Jose Ferrer), later to become the King of France. Joan is compelling as she wins an alliance with the Governor of Vaucouleurs and the courtiers at Chinon, leads her army in the Battle of Orleans, is betrayed by the Burgundians, and edicts that "our strength is in our faith." ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

The final pairing of Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy, an adaptation of a Rodgers & Hart musical, stars Eddy as a playboy who fantasizes that he is romancing an angel (MacDonald). ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi

In the rough-and-tumble world of post-Civil War Texas, ex-Confederate soldier Kirk Jordan (Randolph Scott) crosses paths with ranch owner Ivy Preston (Joan Bennett). Although a loyal Southerner, Jordan can't get past the waste and tragedy of the four years that have just ended, but Ivy is eager to help keep the war for the Confederacy alive, running guns to her would-be lover, unrepentant ex-Confederate captain Alan Sanford (Robert Cummings), who is prepared to ally himself with the Mexican emperor Maximilian as a means of starting a new war against the "Yankee" government. Ivy is attracted to Jordan after he boldly helps her evade an army checkpoint, until she finds out how relatively peaceable he is. Jordan and his sidekick, Cal Tuttle (Raymond Hatton), are prepared to make a cattle drive to the new railhead at Abilene and sell at a handsome profit, but Ivy wants nothing to do with the United States or Yankee money, even as her more practically minded grandmother (May Robson) and her foreman, Chuckawalla (Walter Brennan), try to convince her otherwise. Only when Isaiah Middlebrack (Robert H. Barrat), the corrupt local administrator for the occupying Northern government, arrives announcing a head-tax on cattle does she change her mind and begin to see some worth in Jordan's ambition and boldness. Two deaths, of Middlebrack and a much-loved ranch hand, allow the ranchers and the occupying soldiers to reconcile and make the drive together to the border. Jordan and his outfit find a stricken, desperate Abilene, bereft of anything to be shipped on the new rail line. Jordan's arrival accomplishes everything he hopes for and more, and in the end Ivy sees and also glories in his vision, of a United States reunited and restored, growing and thriving as never before. But Jordan can't abide her continued affection for Alan, whose continued obsession with restoring the Confederacy is wearing on him and almost everyone else by now, and he plans on leaving. Ivy doesn't want to see that happen, but is torn over her lingering affection for Alan. But then she learns that he is planning to join a new organization, the Ku Klux Klan, intended to drive the Yankees out of the South, and she suddenly has to choose with which of these men her future lies. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi

On the last day of school, the Our Gang kids learn that their beloved teacher Miss Jones (Arletta Duncan) is going to be married; thus, come September, the kids will have a "new" teacher, Mrs. Wilson. Miss Jones' fiancee Ralph (Edward Norris) playfully paints a frightening picture of Mrs. Wilson as "a dried-up mean old woman" ---neglecting to inform the kids that his last name is Wilson, and that Miss Jones will continue to be their teacher under her new married name. Thanks to Ralph's ill-timed joshing, the youngsters convince themselves that the only way to retain their favorite teacher is to break up the wedding --- starting with the pre-nuptual reception, where the kids surreptitiously "spike" the food with tabasco sauce, horseradish and garlic peppers. Originally released on April 27, 1935, "Teacher's Beau" marks the final "Our Gang" appearance of series stalwart Mathew "Stymie" Beard. Note: the version included in the "Little Rascals" TV package has been severely edited, rendering the film's punchline incomprehensible (a complete and uncut version is available on home video). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Brooklyn tugboat worker Eddie (Eddie Cantor), bullied and cowed by his tough-guy stepfather and stepbrothers (a la Harold Lloyd's The Kid Brother), inherits $77 million from his uncle, an Egyptologist. Con artist Dot (Ethel Merman) wants to get her lunchhooks on the money, and to this end offers herself as Eddie's adopted mother (never mind that she's nearly 20 years younger), intending to have her thuggish brother Louie (Warren Hymer) bump off our hero at the first opportunity. The nonsensical plotline ends up with Eddie, Dot, Louie, pompous Southern colonel Larrabee (Berton Churchill), and nominal romantic leads Jerry (George Murphy in his film debut) and Jane (Ann Sothern) trapped in the palace of Arab potentate Mulhulla (Paul Harvey). The better-than-average comic banter includes some funny bits between Cantor and Eve Sully, of the comedy team of "Block and Sully" (her husband-partner Jesse Block is also in the picture, but just barely). Spotted among the featured players in Kid Millions are such "Our Gang" members as Stymie Beard, Scotty Beckett and Tommy Bond, and there's a specialty by the Nicholas Brothers during Cantor's obligatory "blackface" number; and yes, that's Lucille Ball as a blonde Goldwyn Girl in the harem sequence. PS: According to Ethel Merman, the film's elaborate Technicolor ice-cream factory finale, in which Eddie allows dozens of tenement kids to gorge themselves on his tasty confections, posed censorship problems: while producer Sam Goldwyn was allowed to show the little boys with comically extended stomachs, he was not permitted to do so with the little girls, for fear that the audience might think the female moppets were pregnant! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The Mystery of the Wax Museum begins in London in the 1920s. Lionel Atwill plays Ivan Igor, a brilliant sculptor who manages a wax museum. Regarding his historical creations as his friends, Igor refuses the entreaties of his business partner, Joe Worth (Edwin Maxwell), to turn his labor-of-love museum into a more profitable "house of horror." Worth responds by setting fire to the museum, hoping to collect the insurance; as Igor looks on in horror, his effigies of Marie Antoinette, Queen Victoria, et al. grotesquely melt to the floor. Flash-forward to 1933: New York City is plagued by several disappearances -- not only of live people, but of recently deceased corpses from the morgue. Hard-boiled girl reporter Florence Dempsey (Glenda Farrell) browbeats her long-suffering editor Jim(Frank McHugh) into investigating these disappearances. Florence rooms with Charlotte Duncan (Fay Wray), the girlfriend of Ralph Burton (Allen Vincent), who works as a technician at a new midtown wax museum. This about-to-open attraction is run by Igor, who had survived the London fire but is now confined to a wheelchair. Igor's old enemy Worth is also in New York, his fingers in several crooked pies. It appears to Florence (and the audience) that somehow Worth is involved in the recent rash of disappearances; the guilty party could also be playboy George Winton (Gavin Gordon), Florence's boyfriend, who is deeply in debt to Worth. But once Igor decides that Charlotte is the living image of Marie Antoinette, the audience becomes uncomfortably suspicious that all those incredibly life-like statues in his museum are actually the paraffin-coated bodies of the missing people. Igor tips his hand when a terrified Charlotte, promised "eternal life" by being "transformed" into an Antoinette effigy, begins punching and clawing at his face -- revealing his countenance to be a mask, covering his hideously burned and gnarled features. Thus, the stage is set for the climactic race to prevent the strapped-down Charlotte from being permanently encased in wax. Long thought lost, The Mystery of the Wax Museum was rediscovered in Jack Warner's personal film collection in 1970. Its two-color Technicolor had faded to the point of monochrome, but fortunately its original hues were preserved by dedicated AFI technicians. The film was remade (and considerably simplified) as the 1953 3-D extravaganza House of Wax, with Vincent Price in the Atwill role. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In the wake of such cinematic Calamity Janes as Jean Arthur and Doris Day, it comes as a shock to find a film in which the famed frontierswoman is played by someone who actually looks the part. Matronly, granite-visaged Louise Dresser stars as Calamity in Caught, an early-talkie psychological western. According to this film, Calamity is a cattle rustler, wanted by the US cavalry. Halfway through this movie the plotline turns into a sagebrush Madame X The young trooper (Richard Arlen) sent to track down Calamity is the woman's long-lost son! It took four writers to cook up this heady brew of motherly love and blazing six-shooters. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

While on an outing to go fishing, Oliver Hardy is trying to get some sleep. He's disturbed by a newspaper that blows in, advertising the reading of the will of an Ebeneezer Laurel. Convinced that his partner, Stan Laurel, must be the heir, the pair head for the Laurel mansion. Upon arrival they find a detective (Fred Kelsey) who suspects murder and forbids anyone to leave the house. Laurel and Hardy spend a chilling night, assigned to the same bedroom in which the murder was committed, their ineptitude only heightening their fright. Various Laurel relatives keep disappearing mysteriously; a trapdoor is found. Hardy winds up in a death struggle with one of the murderers, only to wake up back on the boat. It was all just a dream. Not one of Laurel and Hardy's most hilarious three-reelers, but with many funny moments nonetheless. ~ Janiss Garza, Rovi

This is arguably Laurel and Hardy's best two-reel silent (the other contender for first place is Big Business). The boys play sailors on furlough. They have rented a Model T Ford for the day and meet a pair of pretty girls (Thelma Hill and Ruby Blaine). After an altercation with a gum machine and an irate shopkeeper (Charlie Hall), the foursome go on a drive and find themselves in a traffic jam. They drive past the long line of cars to discover the cause for the delay -- a driver who has run out of fuel on one side, and road workers on the other. Since they can't go forward, Ollie and Stan back up, running into another driver (Edgar Kennedy). They exchange angry bumps and the driver hits the next car back and breaks a headlight. Now the fun really begins -- the rest of the film is what Stan Laurel referred to as "reciprocal destruction." The fight that ensues goes all down the line, and very methodically, each car in the traffic jam is mutilated. Stan and Ollie, of course, are doing the most damage, pulling up fenders, removing tires, etc. Finally a cop comes and as the boys' girlfriends beat a hasty retreat, he puts a halt to the proceedings. All the drivers point at the sailors as the initial cause of the trouble, so the cop motions them to wait while the others leave. As the long row of sorry looking vehicles limp past, Stan and Ollie have a hard time remaining serious. When a truck runs over the cop's motorcycle, the boys take the opportunity to quickly drive off. The policeman orders everybody to "follow them sailors!" They do, even when they enter a railway tunnel. But an oncoming train puts the pursuers in reverse, while Stan and Ollie come out on the other side of the tunnel, their Model T squashed like a pancake on its edge. ~ Janiss Garza, Rovi

Released with sound effects and a music score that included the song "When Love Comes Smiling" by Walter Hirsch, Lew Pollack and Erno Rapee, Paul Leni's near masterpiece remains one of the silent era's last great romantic melodramas. Based on Victor Hugo's 1869 novel L'Homme qui Rit, The Man Who Laughs starred German import Conrad Veidt as Gwynplaine, a carnival freak doomed to live life wearing a perpetual grin carved on his face by Dr Hardquannone (George Siegman because his father, Lord Clancharlie (Allan Cavan), had offended England's King James II (Sam De Grasse). Taken in as a child by Ursus, a mountebank (Cesare Gravina), Gwynplaine grows up alongside the beautiful but blind Dea (Mary Philbin). They fall in love but Gwynplaine refuses to marry her because his hideous face makes him feel unworthy. Queen Anne (Josephine Crowell), meanwhile, has ascended the throne and when she learns from her predecessor's evil jester Barkilphedro (Brandon Hurst) that the recalcitrant Duchess Josiana (Olga Baclanova) is in possession of Lord Clancharlie's estates, she decrees that the royal femme fatale must marry Gwynplaine, the rightful heir. Josiana, who has caught Gwynplaine's act incognito and arranged a rendezvous, is at the same time sexually attracted to and repelled by the "Laughing Man," but Gwynplaine, who realizes that the duchess' attraction has legitimized his right to love Dea, renounces his title and follows his heart to the new World. Although Kirk Douglas was long interested in producing a remake, The Man Who Laughs was instead filmed again as L'Uomo che Ride by Italian director Sergio Corbucci in 1966. Corbucci, however, changed the setting from Queen Anne to the infamous sixteenth century Italian court of the Borgias. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

Author George Barr McCutcheon, who breathed life into many a mythical kingdom, wrote the story for this action-adventure. Although he was not yet a star, William Haines' swashbuckling performance proved that he was definitely on the rise. John Smart (Haines) is a struggling writer who inherits a fortune. He buys an old castle in the kingdom of Laupheim, and finds Countess Von Pless (Madge Bellamy) hiding there. She is trying to get away from her cruel husband, the Count (Stuart Holmes), and Smart tries to help her get out of the country. His plans, however, are exposed by a woman who had unsuccessfully tried to vamp him. The Countess manages to escape by plane anyhow, while Smart fends off the Count and his men with a sword. The authorities take away Smart's castle and he returns to America, broke. His valet, however, brings back a treasure he found in the castle, which enables Smart to wed the Countess. ~ Janiss Garza, Rovi

This silent adaptation of Franz Lehar's famous operetta (in which precious little of the original story was retained) was a rare event in Erich Von Stroheim's directorial career -- a critical and commercial success that the director was also able to complete according to his wishes (though in the latter years of his life, he would claim that the film's final moments were forced upon him by studio brass intent on a happier ending). Prince Danilo (John Gilbert) and Crown Prince Mirko (Roy D'Arcy) are two brothers in the Ruritanian royal family who are notorious womanizers, frequently finding themselves competing for the same woman. When Sally O'Hara (Mae Murray), a dancer from America, stops in Ruritania on a performance tour, both Danilo and Mirko are both strongly attracted to her, as is the older Baron Sadoja (Tully Marshall). Each begins making plans to seduce her; however, during Sally's performance, the differences between the three men become apparent -- Danilo is attracted to the beauty of Sally's eyes and face, while Mirko is strictly interested in her body, and Sadoja's intense focus is upon her feet. Danilo introduces himself to Sally after a performance as "Danilo Petrovich," claiming to be a wealthy commoner rather than royalty. He invites her to dine at his estate after her performance, and when he "mistakenly" spills soup on her dress, it's the first step in his successful efforts to lead her to his bed. Danilo asks Sally to marry him, and she agrees. To his surprise, Danilo finds that he is eager to settle down with the American dancer, but King Nikita (George Fawcett) and Queen Milena (Josephine Crowell) forbid him to marry a woman who does not carry a royal title, and Danilo is forced to leave Sally waiting at the altar. Seizing an opportunity, the aging Sadoja asks Sally for her hand in marriage, and she grudgingly accepts; he dies on their wedding night while ecstatically rummaging through her collection of shoes. Sally inherits Sadoja's estate and retains the title of Baroness, and a year later she encounters Danilo, who is still deeply in love with Sally and wants another chance to win her heart -- although since she never learned the truth about why he never arrived for their wedding, she is not eager to be wooed by him again. Mirko also re-enters the picture in a new effort to win Sally's affections, but while Danilo is motivated by true love, Mirko's efforts are fueled by lust, both for her body and her newly-gained wealth. The Merry Widow was a lavishly-staged production shot on a long schedule (19 weeks, very unusual for the time) with a large cast of extras. If you look carefully, you can spot Clark Gable and Myrna Loy among the bit players, several years before either would become a star. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi